Ben Bowns stopped 41 shots in his 600th Elite League appearance and Cole Sanford scored twice in the final six minutes as the Devils beat the Giants 3-2 in Belfast on Saturday night.

The Giants dominated the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Devils 16-3 but Bowns was on top form, making big save after big save.  The Giants peppered him on the only powerplay of the period, but the score remained 0-0 after one period of play.

The Devils opened the scoring after some excellent work in the corner by Justin Crandall, which allowed Trevor Cox to dig out the puck and feed Evan Mosey out front of the net.  Mosey’s shot beat Tyler Beskorowany between the legs at 28:22 to put the Devils up 1-0.  The Giants again outshot the Devils, this time 13-6, 29-9 after 40 minutes of play, but the Devils held the one goal lead going into the final period. 

Kohei Sato finally beat Bowns at 45:02 as he tapped in a rebound off of a shot by Sean Norris landed right onto his stick to make it 1-1 and blow the roof off the SSE Arena.  The Devils took the lead late in the period at 54:43 when Josh Waller’s fed Sanford streaking up the right side and his shot somehow squeaked through Beskorowany to make it 2-1. 

Less than two minutes later, the Giants tied it again after a poor giveaway behind the Devils net allowed Mark Cooper to find Charlie Curti whose shot was tipped past Bowns by Greg Printz at 56:39. 

The game looked destined for overtime and with the Giants piling on the pressure in the dying minute of the game, a mishandled puck at the blueline allowed Sanford to poke the puck past the defenceman and go in alone on the Giants net and beat Beskorowany with 47 seconds to make it 3-2 and seal the win for the Devils. 

An incredible road win for the Devils who were outshot 43-14 with Ben Bowns putting in one of the best performances of his career to lead the Devils to the win.

Photos courtesy of William Cherry (Press Eye)